Sunday, 6 January 2013

Sister, my Sister

I feel ashamed. Late last month I was loosely aware
that some horrible crime had been committed against a woman in Delhi,
the capital of India.
But I looked no closer. I was too full of the joys of life. I was
getting ready to host a party in London;
I was looking forward to a family Christmas in the country; I was preparing for
my annual skiing holiday. What was happening in my own life was more
important than what had happened to some unknown female in a place as far away
as Delhi.

I’m now back to reality, my eyes wide open. I now know exactly what
happened to this twenty-three year old physiotherapy intern, so far
unnamed. If you are at all sensitive to these matters it might be best if
you read no further. She was gang raped, horrible enough in itself, but
the details of what was inflicted on her, the violence and the mutilation, are
almost beyond any horror that I have the power to conceive. What happened
had nothing to do with sex and desire. It was an act of atavistic and
sadistic hatred. It was an act that goes deep into India’s heart
of darkness.

It was the evening of 16 December. The woman, let me
just call her Sister, was on her way home with a male friend, an
engineer. They had been to the cinema together to see The Life of Pi,
something countless numbers of couples were doing that day across the
Earth. They hailed a chartered bus, a private vehicle used to ferry
schoolchildren by day. That night it was being taken on a joyride.
Six men were on board, all members of staff.

Sister and her friend got on, after being told by one of the
alleged perpetrators, a seventeen-year-old youth, that the bus was going in their
direction. No sooner was it underway than the taunts and suggestions
began. The bus had large tinted windows, so nobody from outside could see
what was going on.

Sister’s male friend, trying to protect her, was beaten
unconscious with an iron bar. She was dragged to the back of the bus,
beaten with the same bar. Then the rape began, five men taking turns as
the sixth drove the bus around the city streets. The sexual assault was
violent enough. Making it even worse was the torture.

Later medical reports show that Sister suffered serious
injuries to her abdomen, her intestines and her genitals. Doctors also
report that a rusted iron implement had been thrust into her. Part
of her intestines was pulled out. She was then almost completely
disembowelled. According to police reports, the youngest of her
attackers, the seventeen-year-old, pulled out her intestines with his bare
hands. Later in hospital she was found to have only 5% of her bowels left
inside her body.

The couple were then dumped into the streets from the moving
bus. The perpetrators allegedly tried to run Sister over, but she was
pulled aside by her male companion. Both were later found bleeding on the
sidewalk and taken to hospital, where doctors struggled to save Sister’s
life. With her condition deteriorating, the decision was taken to move
her to a specialist hospital in Singapore.

It has to be said that the motives here were political and
not medical. She was going to die and the government, already
embarrassed, did not want her to die in India. She did die. She
died on 29 December, when I was skiing on the slopes of French Savoy.

As the details of the horror became public the mood in India turned
toxic. There were widespread public protests in a country where rape and
violence against women is commonplace. Not only that but the law is
notoriously slow in dealing with accusations of sexual assault. There was
only one conviction from the 635 cases of rape reported in Delhi between January and November of last
year.

Most of India’s
rape victims are poor and generally of a lower cast. Sister was
different. She was a child of India’s emerging middle
class. Disgust at the callousness of the attackers turned to disgust
against the government. Across the country Indians, women and men,
protested at the incompetence of the political classes. As I celebrated
the arrival of 2013 half a world away a more sombre mood settled. Writing
in the New Statesman, Soumya Bhattacharya said “We were shamed and chastened,
united in grief, and the notion of revelry was not something that figured in
most people’s minds.”

Deeply unsettled, the Indian government has promised to
introduce harsher laws against rape, including thirty year jail terms, chemical
castration and the setting up of fast track courts. In the meantime shock
over the incident led to anti-rape protests spilling across India’s borders
to the rest of the Subcontinent. There were demonstrations in Nepal, Pakistan,
Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
Even Ban ki-moon, the Secretary General of the United Nations, was moved to
make a statement, saying that “Violence against women must never be accepted,
never excused, never tolerated. Every girl and woman has the right to be
respected, valued and protected.”

Sister was cremated on 30 December in accordance with Hindu custom. Her fate may, I stress may change attitudes towards
women of all castes and classes in India. I certainly hope so.

I did not hear this until read your blog. Too sad and my heart broke for the Sister! Things happened in China during Cultural Revolution certainly can compete with such horror! Don't know what else to say though.

Nonetheless, welcome back to "real world" Ana. Happy New Year! And I am glad you had wonderful time in the "fake world".

I note that Sky news is reporting yet another similar case occurring yesterday in a town not far from where this horrific act happened. I have for some time now harboured the belief that us humans are basically evil and that this side of our nature is only kept in check out of self interest. If we can prosper and procreate through evil we will but because anarchy is not in our long term interests and lessens our chance of survival we set up rules that we deem necessary to enhance our success in that survival. However having rules is one thing but enforcing them is another so any weakness in either will be exploited because as I say we are basically evil. So in this case enforcement is sadly lacking and India and all of us need a greater concentration of effort on enforcement. Sadly more often than not when terrible and horrible things occur we rush to add to the rule book but do little to improve the protection, detection and apprehension rate.

Hi Ana, for the poor woman's wretched death to be truly atoned for, the second tragedy will have to be addressed: http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2013/01/05/delhi-rape-why-did-no-one-help An interesting perspective by a young Indian woman--since the awful Kitty Genovese case shocked America two generations ago, governments in many countries have aggravated the phenomenon of bystander apathy . . .

About Me

Hi, I'm Ana! History is my passion -and that is not too strong a word - but I also enjoy politics, philosophy, art, literature and travel. In addition I have a deep interest in witchcraft, in all of the ancient arts. Apart from that I'm a keen sportswoman. I play lacrosse and tennis, but I love riding most of all. I have my own horse, Annette.